Orissa Christians are victims of Police as Leftist Rebels

Bhubaneswar: Christians in Orissa are suffering violence and persecution for their faith, guised as a fight against leftist rebels AsiaNews reported.

"We are getting a lot of trouble from the police", says Father George Puthenkandam, who heads Berhampur diocese's Vincent Nagar parish. Police come from Bathili station in Andhra Pradesh, though police of one state have no jurisdiction in another state. Bishop Joseph Das of Berhampur stated that he has taken the matter up with police and civil officials in Orissa, who, he said, promised action.

Vincent Nagar parish has mostly tribal believers. The Naxalites, a regional rebel Maoist network, also have tribal members. Louis Kumar said that the police come wearing the particular kind of clothing that Naxalites wear: "They say that if they shoot and kill us after making us wear that dress, no one could question them, because they could declare that the Naxalites were killed in a police encounter".

Michael Kumar Majhi, a parish catechist, was arrested in mid–May: He was tortured during the six days he was locked up in the police station: "Police physically abused me, verbally abused me and the Church, and threw away my Bible and rosary," he explained.